Done in Secret

The next movement of this “Sermon on the Mount” is a discussion about hypocrites. Jesus has some teaching points about giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting. They are as follows:

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

If I were to hit the pause button, I would point out that Jesus directly connects “righteousness” with giving to the poor. This is a connection that is made in Jewish thought starting with the Hebrew language. The idea of tzedekah (“righteousness”) is connected to hearing the tze’ekah (“cries of the oppressed”). Even in Jewish communities today, you will find a tzedekah box; this is a box to collect funds for the poor and other acts of benevolence. In Jewish thought, your “acts of righteousness” are not “doing the right things,” but the right thing you should be doing is hearing the cry of the oppressed. It seems like there is a blog post hiding in that idea alone…

This is followed by thoughts on prayer:

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

And this is followed by the theme of fasting:

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

First, a note on “hypocrites”: Much to the disappointment of all the haters out there, this is not a teaching on hypocrisy. The word for hypocrite is actually the word for actor. The Hellenistic actors in the theater would fit the descriptions seen above. When famous actors were in town, their arrival on stage would be signaled with the blast of a trumpet (you often could not see the famous face when it was in costume and so far away). They would paint their faces to communicate a mood to the audience. Jesus’s larger point here is not the horrible character of hypocrites, but the life of an actor. An actor is one who makes a living at putting on a show. That show may or may not be accurate to reality, but the point is the actor is doing it for the show. Jesus has the audacity to claim there are “actors” in the synagogues — there are people who are actually walking the path of obedience for the sole purpose of being seen. This is what is being condemned in the teaching.

Second, a note on the “reward”: The reward is juxtaposed against the reward of the actor. Jesus warns his hearers that if they do these things to be seen by others, that is all the reward they will get — fleeting recognition from other people. They will get no reward from God. It is important to note the tense of that reward; the reward is a PRESENT reward, not a FUTURE one. Therefore, when Jesus claims that if you do these things with a pure heart, not to be seen by men, you get a much deeper reward; you get a reward from God. This reward is not speaking about the future; it makes no sense to look at the hypocrites reward as present and the worshipper’s reward as future. The reward you get is NOW. God goes about doing a work in your heart now, not installing an extra jewel in your crown for heaven.

Finally, a note on the “secrecy”: One of the most perplexing parts of this teaching is the exhortation by Jesus to do these things “in secret.” I cannot count the number of times that I have been told I am not allowed to discuss fasting because Jesus told me to do it in secret. This is completely bogus. Jesus told me that if I fast in order to be seen by men, that will be all the reward I get; but if I fast for reasons only God can see, I will experience a better reward. One must remember that merely a page earlier, Jesus told his listeners to “let their light shine before men, so that they might see their good deeds and glorify their Father who is in Heaven.” Jesus wants the deeds to be seen! His teaching about “secrecy” is directed at motivations of the heart. This is important, because our walks should be modeled before others. Our faith is not a private one. It is one that should echo the words of Paul, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”

At any rate, Jesus’s words in this section invite us to examine our motivations truly. Do we find ourselves going through the motions in order to be seen by others? The answers may surprise us. We are warned there is not much reward in this. But if we truly desire to follow God with a pure heart, there is incredible work to be done.